Saturday, 16 February 2013

This is another Ehrman tapestry cushion kit bought from a charity shop. I finished stitching it last summer but because it was for a Christmas present I have not been able to write about before. The design by Jill Gordon is called Avriculas. The kit looked complete, but one shade provided did not appear in the design and there was very little supplied for several shades - in the event there was just enough.

The yarn was Paterna yarn. It is the first time I have used it. Somehow I liked it less than the Anchor yarn. The instructions said to use it doubled, but it did not seem to cover completely. The yarn provided for the background was dark red, but I did not use it. There was no picture provided, and I need to see a red background before I am going to do it. The flowers would surely not have looked good against dark red? I used some green Paterna yarn that I had found in a charity shop earlier. The stitch count was 10 stitches to the inch. Now that I have done 12 stitches I know I prefer smaller stitches.

Nevertheless I did enjoy the stitching. The colourful flowers were fun to do, and I like large areas in a single colour. The cushion looks OK, but I was pleased to give it away.

The tapestry I am working on now is much more pleasant. It is a Beth Russell William Morris kit - Orange Border, and also from a charity shop. It is a large design and with small stitches, 14 to the inch, so it will take me a year or more. This is done in Appleton crewel wool - the nicest tapestry yarn I have come across.

And, my proud purchase this week was a large bagful of Appleton crewel wool skeins. Tapestry yarn does not count against the yarn store, so there was no problem buying it. I have no idea what I will do with it yet. I have thought about doing a design from one of Kaffe Fassett's books or Alice Starmore book 'Celtic needlepoint'. I really like Alice Starmore's book. She gives you a lot of useful information, and I like her designs using shaded colours - ie with two or more shades together.

Finally I added up the yarn store figures for January: I bought two balls of yarn - 100 gr - and the Susan Duckworth cardigan, 565 gr, and finished blanket #152 - 1625 gr, so overall the yarn store went down by 960 gr. A good start to the year. I found the cardigan in the book 'Floral knitting' but done with a cream background instead of the red one here.